Preliminary Laboratory Astrophysics Experiments on SPHINX and OEDIPE Pulsed Power Devices at CEA GRAMAT

Simulating astrophysical phenomena in laboratory experiments has made considerable progress with the advent of high-power lasers and z-pinch pulsed power devices. In that field of research, scaled-down laboratory jets relevant to Herbig-Haro objects capability has been demonstrated. Recently, it has been shown on the Z-pinch MAGPIE ( 2MA, 250 ns) installation of Imperial College that unique experimental techniques to study both the jet formation, using radial arrays, and its propagation, using conical arrays, are now available [1]. CEA GRAMAT Z-pinch pulsed power facilities are among the biggest in Europe. SPHINX machine [2] is a 8MA, 1.2 μs driver and OEDIPE is a 800 kA, 1.4 μs driver. SPHINX was built and is used to produce k-shell radiation sources using wire arrays or Gas Puff z-pinch loads for radiation effects studies [3]. A unique characteristics of CEA GRAMAT devices, which makes them ideal for laboratory astrophysics experiments, is their relatively long current rise-time. It is expected to gain experimental access to jets of lengths of up to 10-20 cm ( factor of ten or more compared to other pulsed-power facilities and 100 compared to laser produced jets), giving the opportunity to follow the dynamics, and development of instabilities, well into the non-linear regime. We present preliminary experiments of radial and conical wire array loads on both SPHINX and OEDIPE. Pulsed-power devices are described as well as diagnostics setup. Results shown are very encouraging as the capability of having scaled-down, related laboratory system in such details opens up the exciting prospect to gain a deep understanding of these flows complementary to astronomical observations.